Axeing uniforms isn’t very smart

I read with interest Alexandra Shulman’s column last week on how axeing formal clothes puts women at a disadvantage. For 18 years, I worked in the offices of a large company. I came from the hotel trade, where I’d been used to wearing a uniform, but the dress code at my new job was ‘smart casual’. However, over the years, as younger staff joined and older people retired, the ‘smart’ part of ‘smart casual’ disappeared.

Young women certainly didn’t find the freedom from formality tricky – they looked as if they were heading for a nightclub or the beach. The men, in logo T-shirts and low-slung jeans, showing their underwear, looked more like Status Quo roadies. Staff of both sexes showed off tattoos and multiple piercings.

In my offices, the axeing of formal clothes put standards, rather than women, at a disadvantage. The way people dressed seemed to have a psychological effect on their work performance.

S. Wilding, Scarborough